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No one stepped forward.
“What’s the matter?” Cam challenged. “I can let you have one of these for…say…thirty pounds of produce.” He glanced at the food tables. “That’s cheap considering all you have.” He looked around the crowd. “Okay. Maybe you’d rather trade for something else? Boots? I could maybe trade for a good pair of boots.” He turned to Finn. “What about you, blacksmith? Trade for a good knife? Maybe an ax or a saw?”
“I trade,” Aiesha said, stepping forward. “Basket for hide. Three hides, three baskets.”
Cam raised an eyebrow. “Well now, baskets aren’t what we need. We’re more interested in food, you see, or cloth—” His eyes narrowed, fixed on her necklace. “But I might be persuaded to trade for coins.” He moved closer to inspect the twenty-dollar gold piece. “I guess I could trade you a hide for that,” he said coolly, pointing at the necklace.
Aiesha gasped and grasped the necklace with her hand. “No. No trade.”
“Come on,” Cam coaxed, moving closer. “You know you can tan these hides and make all kinds of stuff you can sell to these folks. Clothes, shoes, heck, another tepee if you want. What’s that bauble gonna get you?”
Taran watched, Austin whose pompous grin made it abundantly clear he thought Aiesha and everyone else in the village were fools just waiting to be taken. Couldn’t Paige see what was happening? Or was she too enthralled to have found Austin to see the truth?
Old Man stepped forward. “No trade.”
Cam didn’t try to hide his exasperation. “You still around, old man? Go back to your fire. I’ve got business with these folks.” He picked up a scroungy rabbit fur and held it up. “Come on, someone make me an offer.” He looked at Albert who stood beside Elsie and their girls. “Something for your wife or daughters, for winter?” One of the girls looked up at her papa but no one said anything.
“You’re new here, right?” Cam asked. “I’ll bet you’ve got some coins in those pockets. You can’t spend them here, so why not trade for something useful.”
Albert gave a single, definitive, shake of his head.
Cam turned his narrow-eyed glare on Austin who pulled away from Paige and picked up a couple of the smaller hides to hold aloft. “You’ll regret not having these come winter,” he taunted. When no one responded, he tossed them to the ground and picked up a larger one, holding it aloft.
A small doe hide, Taran thought, noticing Aiesha’s piqued interest. She took a step forward, peeked at the coin still inside her fisted hand, and stepped back again.
“You’ll wish you had this on your cold dirt floors, come winter,” Austin called to the crowd, his tone dark and aggressive.
Taran supposed there were many here who could put the furs to good use. He wasn’t sure if their reluctance to do business had something to do with lack of something to trade, or their clear dislike for Austin.
A few of them turned away, murmuring among themselves.
Paige’s face fell. He couldn’t blame her for wanting her brother to succeed. At least he had something to trade instead of just taking.
Stepping forward, Taran reached down to inspect the furs. Just as he thought, thin and patchy. But they could still be tanned and put to good use. “I’ll give ye forty dollars, U.S., or the equivalent in pound notes, for the lot.”
“That’s not—” Austin began before Cam pushed him out of the way.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cam said. “They’re worth ten times that.”
“Forty,” Taran repeated.
“Eighty,” Cam replied.
“Forty,” Taran said again.
Cam’s lips took a hard line as he studied Taran. “Sixty, just to keep things on a friendly note.” His voice held the hint of a threat.
“Twenty,” Taran countered, using his best poker-face. It didn’t really matter what he paid, what was tucked inside his sporran couldn’t be spent. Not here. So why did Cam want it in the first place? Regardless, his perceived hold on this community needed to be loosened a wee bit.
Cam’s eyes widened, then narrowed, giving himself away. Taran knew he only had to wait him out.
“Ridiculous,” Cam said. Throwing his hands in the air, he stalked away but passed a hungry glance down the heavily laden food table.
“He offers forty and all you can eat.But not take,” Old Man said, casting a subtle glance at Taran, who returned it with a brief nod.
“I can see nothing’s changed around here,” Cam grumbled. “Forty, it is.”
Taran opened his sporran and fished out some bills. “Aiesha, if you will show Austin where you want the hides put, I’ll pay his…partner?” Taran looked from Cam to Austin to see if he would acknowledge what part he had in all this.
